by Charlene Sharpe, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Charlene Sharpe

Berlin, MD — Work hard. Try harder.

Delaware horsewoman Erica Wagner, who earned her first training win last week, says it’s that phrase that keeps her focused each day when she heads to the barn.

“My grandfather told me that when I was four years old,” she said. “I can still hear him telling me that.”

Wagner, 33, celebrated her first win as a trainer at Ocean Downs June 11 with So Vilda. The pacer, owned by Mark Howard, is one of three horses Wagner trains in Delaware.

Erica Wagner celebrated her first win as a trainer at Ocean Downs June 11 with So Vilda.

Though the 4-year-old mare is small, Wagner says she’s willing and eager to please. She was still surprised to see So Vilda take the lead for driver Frank Milby and stay there, crossing the wire more than three lengths ahead of the competition at Ocean Downs last week.

“I was kind of caught off-guard,” said Wagner, who received her trainer’s license just a couple weeks before the mare won. “She’s nice but I’m never going to call my mom and say I win in (1:)53 with this horse.”

Nevertheless, Wagner was thrilled to record her first win in just her third start as a trainer. Though she’s worked with racehorses all of her adult life, Wagner said she waited to get her trainer’s license until she was ready. She decided she’d reached that point this year, after 15 years of working for a variety of trainers in the First State, including Eddie and Janet Davis, Chuck Crissman, Kevin Lare, Dylan Davis and Will Reynolds.

“Now it’s time to try it on my own,” she said.

Like many of those in the racing industry, Wagner, who’s originally from Maine, grew up in the business. Her parents, Shawn and Deb Hanley, and relatives on both sides of her family raced horses. With a blacksmith as a father, Wagner and her siblings spent much of their childhood traveling to different racetracks. From sixth grade until she graduated high school, Wagner was in a different school each year. She credits her “gift for gab” with making all the moves easy for her.

“It wasn’t hard for me,” she said. “I’m confident and I have the ability to talk to people.”

Wagner happened to finish high school in Delaware and she and her family have called the First State home ever since. Now that she’s training a trio of horses herself, Wagner is planning to continue racing in the Mid-Atlantic area. She’s currently racing Howard’s horses at Ocean Downs and her own Quik Magic at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

“I’d love to have a competitive stable at Dover (Downs) but it takes time,” she said.

Charlene Sharpe photos

Erica Wagner and 5-year-old pacing gelding Wont Be Nothing, one of three horses she trains, at Ocean Downs Sunday night.

Wagner, who grew up playing sports, says the competitive aspect of harness racing is what she loves about it.

“Especially being in a male dominated industry,” she said. “It’s nice to know I’m just as good and my horses are just as good as theirs.”

While Wagner is eager to expand on last week’s success, she’s already acknowledging the fact that it takes a lot more than her own efforts in the barn to win races. She credits her husband, Duane, as well as her parents and her siblings for their help. Her father and brother shoe her horses while the rest of her family is always happy to help.

“It’s a definite group effort,” she said. “I’m the one who goes to the winner’s circle but it should be me, the groom, the blacksmith, the vet. At the end of the day they all have the same goal.”